At Intel, healthcare spending rose from $250 million a year to $500 million, with just “800 people driving $100 million of that cost,” Intel’s Tami Graham told 200 attendees at a breakfast forum co-sponsored by Oregon Health Forum and Oregon Business Magazine.
Intel seemed doomed to spend a billion dollars a year on healthcare. Instead, it tried “connected care,” the same model used by the coordinated care organizations and paid providers based on their performance. “We all started these things around the same time, talking to each other,” said Graham.
In 2013, 60 percent of Intel’s employees in New Mexico signed up for connected care through a single provider. A year later, the tech giant offered the same model to its Oregon employees after contracting with Providence and Kaiser, and opening an onsite clinic with another provider. To date, 30 percent of its work force is participating.
“Intel employees live to change the world,” Graham said. “Disrupt or we disrupt. Healthcare is in need of serious disruption.”
Yet, interoperability is problematic because not all providers use the same electronic health system. Dr. Craig Fausel, CEO of The Oregon Clinic agreed, saying the interoperability of medical records is “shameful” and “awful for patient care. It was pathetic a year ago and it’s a real challenge now.”
With the new federal waiver looming for the state’s Medicaid program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is sending “strong signals” to prepare for transition when a new president takes office, said Lynne Saxton, director of the Oregon Health Authority. And, she proudly said that Oregon has stayed within its 3.4 percent growth rate required by its current waiver.
Morgan O’Toole, CEO of the Kartini Clinic, which treats eating disorders, raised concerns about Health Share’s reliance on the counties in the Portland area to provide mental health care, comparing its system with FamilyCare, which has a more streamlined approach.
“When Health Share was started, the county managed most of mental health,” said Janet Meyer, CEO. “Our priority was to do nothing to disrupt the safety net. The county-based system will be migrating in 2016.”
Speaking about monopolies, Meyer also said. “It’s not beneficial to have five CCOs managing these special populations,” such as the 3,500 foster children that Health Share serves each month. “We have as many CCOs as our communities were interested in sponsoring.”
Sean Jessup, Medicaid Program Director of the Eastern Oregon CCO run by Moda Health said he was surprised there weren’t more opportunities for telehealth considering the difficulties of winter travel through the 50,000 square miles his CCO covers -- about half of Oregon.
Jan can be reached at [email protected].
